Ciao From Italy

First, this is not going to become a travel blog. Though, do not tempt me.

I am delayed in posting this due to a surprise call I got week before last asking me to come back to CIMBA in Italy and teach again this summer. For context, I taught in Italy for the first-time last summer (right before starting my sabbatical). By the time it became a hard ask, I had two and half business days to rearrange my life for six weeks, buy a plane ticket, gather all necessities, and pack. I felt panicky and rushed until I got through TSA Security on Wednesday. Then, I started to slowly relax. It has been eleven months since I felt that level of stress. Suddenly, as I slid into the first of two airplane seats and buckled my seat belt, I remembered why I had walked away from a 24/7 lifestyle of that.

I say all of that to say, “Ciao,” from Asolo, Italy.

CIMBA is located about fifteen minutes up the road in Paderno del Grappa. I am in the Veneto region of Italy and about fifty minutes by car from Venice. Last year I stayed in a beautiful one room studio apartment in Castelcucco (which is in between Asolo and Paderno del Grappa). This year, I am in a two-bedroom house adjacent to a vineyard with gorgeous views of the mountains. I am nearly dead center between the school and the main center of Asolo, a village which is the best kept secret in Italy. IMO. Asolo is also home to the best Prosecco in the world. Please do not ask me the cost of a great meal or a bottle of wine, I truly do not want to make you cry. It is utterly ridiculous. As friends here told me last summer, Italy is expensive for Italians, but if you can retire here from abroad, it is a steal. I have seen a lot over three trips to Italy that proves that out.

Last summer I taught the course I designed Storytelling in Marketing. This summer, I will be teaching someone else’s course, Social Media Marketing and although I have been offered to make it my own whether by adding storytelling, entrepreneurship, etc., I remain very nervous. It is hard to follow someone else.

My classroom at CIMBA.

I had a conversation before I left the U.S. that I cannot shake. I am not sure the wish is to shake it as much as it is to make sense of it. I started to write a completely different paragraph, but then re-read that last line above, “It is hard to follow someone else.” It is, isn’t it? As an entrepreneur, a writer, even previously in the teaching I have done, I am a creator. I birthed something new in those roles every time. This time teaching feels more nerve wracking because it is not really mine. I am following someone else’s plan, design, work. Where I have to mentally get to is that I have the opportunity to make it my own. Why does that feel harder than starting from nothing?

Some of us simply like to follow roadmaps while others like to create the roadmaps. I have always had a pretty sturdy foot in each. I am flexible that way. So, to suddenly be struggling following someone else’s roadmap feels strange to me. Why am I having such a hard time?

Maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with having the opportunity this past ten to eleven months to create something that was wholly mine. A life, a rhythm, a pace that fits my unique and individual design. To be asked to bend to someone else’s design feels foreign. Inside I feel like a petulant toddler, “When do I get my way?!?!” To be clear, I know I am being ridiculous. Please do not take me as viewing my attitude as sane. It is more about understanding it, rooting out the source of it, and confronting it.

This surprise trip to Italy and surprise opportunity to do something I love in a place I love with people I love and to do it unconventionally is a real test of this new season I am in. This life I designed for myself while still on sabbatical in Norway last year involves a more hybrid life versus the one lane at one million miles per hour that I have lived since my teenage years. This one takes balance. It is built on balance. I have never believed in balance. I have given speeches on my lack of belief on balance. Now, I am being forced to eat my own words in an attempt to live out my own design. The irony.

God has such a sense of humor.

Here is what I know. Everything changes. Nothing works out exactly as you plan. That does not mean plans are not good (please Good Lord, I cannot take it if that does not always remain true - LOL - your girl loves a plan). We have to be able to adapt. Sometimes our greatest dreams arrive in ways that are less than dreamy, but that in no way diminishes the dream.

I am being taught this lesson in one of my favorite places in the world. So maybe Mary Poppins was right. A spoonful of sugar does in fact help the medicine go down.

Ciao!

Cappuccino + Chocolate Brioche

Author’s Note: The majority of this post was written in my first couple of days in Italy. I flew out one week ago today as I wrap this post up. Since I started writing it, classes have started up, my nerves have settled, my jet lag has started to subside, and I have already had a few gallons worth of cappuccinos. This region of Italy feels like home, but more on that later. Also, please imagine me hiding in the back of a large empty Italian classroom where I can find one to record the voiceover. Yes, I did bring my gear so I could do this while overseas.